Strange & Beautiful
by Demitria Miriam
Summary: Demons, while fearsome, eternal creatures, have one fatal flaw that many do not know of. They cannot feel. One demon has now done the unthinkable among his kind in order to give his only son a chance to rectify that. Sessho x Inu fic. Shounen-ai.
1. Strange

Title: Strange & Beautiful  
Author: Demitria Miriam  
Rating: M  
Pairings: Sesshomaru x Inuyasha  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I make any money off this piece of fiction.  
Note: This was written while I listened to, "Strange and Beautiful (I'll Put a Spell on You)" by Aqualung... Thought it was a fun and very interesting idea to explain another reason of why Sesshomaru "adopted" Rin, and why he treats Inuyasha the way he does, even though it's totally not WHY but it's nice to think a bit outside the box.

Summary: Demons, while fearsome, eternal creatures, have one fatal flaw that many do not know of. They cannot feel. One demon has now done the unthinkable among his kind in order to give his only son a chance to rectify that. SesshoxInu fic.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Strange**

Humans cared little to know or learn more about demons. They knew of the simple fact that they were fearsome, eternal beings that held earthly control over a god's awesome powers. And yet, while they feared them, they never sought to look beyond what they saw on the surface, to understand what was beyond (or not) a demon's cold and aloof mask. Had they tried, they may have been more empathetic... more compassionate... more understanding...

More human than how they acted toward their very distant cousins. For their fear turned into indifference, their indifference turning into spite and loathing.

They turned into the very beings they believed youkai to be.

* * *

Youkai were emotionally inept. They possessed no sense of emotion nor feeling save from physical pain. They knew no happiness, sadness, jealousy or anger. And aside from their instinctual habits regarding mating and hierarchy placement, they often roamed the lands of the world, neither holding on to ties they made with lovers as they went, or settling down to have a family like a human would do.

They roamed. They fought. They conquered, and they reproduced.

Females would bear young, see to their wellbeing to ensure they survived into adulthood and then left. The young would wander off themselves, learning, adapting to their surroundings and continue on as the father they never knew more than likely did or had done. However, there were rare and unheard of instances when a father would raise his offspring while the mother felt no need to look over her child. One such instance happened three hundred years ago.

He went by the name Inu no Taishou, and he was young, a mere three hundred years old, roaming the land yet making a conscious decision to staying on the large island he was born to. Year after year, during the first few months, when the females of his kind went into heat and males of the same specie were drawn in by their scent, he had met many a bitch, yet none had kept his attention. Save for one.

He had known _Her_ since he could last remember. They had been born of the same litter of three pups, all having gone their separate ways when they made their first kills, their mother deeming them ready to move on from her immediate care, and her ready for another mate. Yet, while his siblings and he had moved on from their family, wandering the lands for years on end without having seen either of the others, each pup, now grown, still recognized their sibling's scents; they would sometimes run across one of the others along their senseless journeys.

Inu no Taishou so happened to run across his sister this mating season. They had rutted, conceived and sixty-three days later had a litter of four pups, three dying early on in their first three years of life. The surviving pup had been the smallest, yet strongest of the lot. The child was a curious one indeed, and this lone fact was the only reason his sire came by every so often, unlike so many other youkai fathers.

An odd thing to do indeed, yet somehow it felt natural, right.

The pup's father even allowed the boy to accompany him on his journeys when his mother strayed into her own habits. They traveled many decades together, many youkai looking oddly upon the two, for it was such a strange spectacle to see two nearly grown to grown youkai, other than pack demons such as wolves, to travel with one another.

Neither father nor son paid much attention and merely enjoyed the, mostly, silence they shared. And as the pup got older he tended to wander away every now and then, his sire comfortable with the steady growth his son showed. Yet a strange feeling encompassed him when he thought of his son turning out like the rest of their kind.

Aloof, cold, and otherwise estranged to the world.

For... some reason, he didn't want that for his son, especially not with how he seemed to be an anomaly to his own kind, what with how he seemed to have an insatiable urge to know everything, to understand it. When Inu no Taishou thought about it a little more... the pup really did act the way he had observed humans to... the word he had caught one time to describe their strange behavior was called... "curiosity."

That's what his son was exhibiting, a human tendency called curiosity. At this thought he realized something that was otherwise unheard of among his kind. His son, while a demon with no emotion or feeling, exhibited a human habit... and if he were able to... feel that one human trait... then maybe...

Though through the following years he had tried his best to unleash any other possible feelings his son unknowingly harbored, yet to no avail. Perhaps though, he pondered, he wasn't the one that would unlock the beautiful and strange things that quite possibly lied dormant in his only son, anticipating their kind being spurred into a new era of youkai and their potential to feel.

He would find a way... no matter what. He wanted better for the boy.

And until then, only his son would be able to have the capability of at least one human feeling. This... curiosity.

Though, in his journey, Inu no Taishou hadn't realized that by doing the most he could for his first son, by going to the great lengths that he would go to, that he _had_ gone to, that he himself had obtained his own human feeling... And that was love.

* * *

_Chapter end._


	2. Beautiful

Note: The "149 Years Ago*" = a year before Inuyasha was sealed to the tree. I think he was about 150 when sealed and then 50 years passed and he would have been, technically 200. So it's a year before he meets Kikyou, etc.

* * *

_Strange & Beautiful_**  
Chapter 2: Beautiful**

_149 Years Ago*_

"Goddamn you, Sesshomaru, you emotionless bastard! I'm gonna kill you!" a very angry Inuyasha snarled, brandishing his claws once more against his brother.

Sesshomaru merely stepped off to the side gracefully, eyebrow raised curiously. As his sibling said, he was indeed an "emotionless bastard," for he was of youkai blood and not of half-blood. The demon didn't understand why his sibling got so defensive when he referred to him as having half-blood. It's what he was, what ran through his veins. Half human blood, half demon blood.

And every time Sesshomaru would mention this, which was as often as he could, his sibling's eyes would alight with fire and his pulse rate would increase, his face would flush and his body would quiver with rage. All this because he was of half-blood and, for whatever reason Sesshomaru could not fathom, his sibling was offended by this fact. It was definitely a curious thing to experience, especially when Inuyasha seemed proud, now, to be both of ningen and youkai heritage.

This notion caused a glimmer of something warm and light to enter his mind and try to breakout by way of his mouth. It almost felt as if his mouth were trying to stretch into a the shape of the crescent moon upon his brow, a softness flowing into his eyes. He could... feel it. And it was not pain he felt. It was something... else.

Sesshomaru moved to one side again as his brother bumbled about with his only weapon, his claws, attempting to aim a poorly devised attack at the spur of a moment.

His brother really was a fascinating being indeed.

"Damnit!" then hanyou cursed as he heaved in a breath from all the exertion it took to attempt to cut into his brother's skull with his claws yet to no avail. He looked up at his sibling who was now currently standing on a tree branch high above his head. And he glared, willing the branch to snap and for his half-brother to fall on his head and crack it open!

Sesshomaru then does something he's only recently been able to do. He chuckled softly. He had heard humans do it in his travels and referred to it as "belly rolling" or "laughing." From what he'd observed in his centuries of life at this point was that humans, usually, laughed when they were happy. However, on the rarer occasion they laughed out of fear or embarrassment.

This was one of the happy belly rolling that Sesshomaru was engaging in. And it felt wonderful, especially when he took in his sibling's agitated form on the ground below. He was practically seething from the tips of his toes.

"What the hell are you laughing at, asshole!" the hanyou bellowed.

Sesshomaru would have continued to chuckle despite the Blades of Blood that were rushing at him but he decided to, instead, jump into the air and land behind his brother before the other even realized he'd moved.

"Hmm, Inuyasha, you really should learn to control that temper," the youkai said, hoping very much for the opposite to happen. And it did.

"You asshole!" he pivoted around and swiped thin air, hearing his sibling's voice but not seeing a trace of him, "I will see you again, soon, Inuyasha."

* * *

It had been forty-five years ago to this day that he'd seen his brother... alive and emotional as always. He had finished his travels yet again and sought the younger half-inu out, not knowing his exact location and instead following the half-demon's scent to a human village, hoping to incur the boy's wrath once more. Inuyasha's scent wafted throughout the village yet it seemed to originate from a different location. The youkai followed the wind trail and then came upon the sight of his unconscious sibling.

Truth be told, he hadn't known what it was that bound his sibling idle and lacking mind. However, when he attempted to remove the object that seemed to lay his brother dormant and pinned to a tree, it zapped him, causing massive burns to align his hand.

Sesshomaru's brow creased as he realized what this was. A sacred arrow. The young youkai had merely stood there, staring at his bound sibling, wondering how this had happened.

It wasn't until some human children came upon the half-demon in the dead of night as Sesshomaru made camp at the top of the tree, the kids completely unaware of his presence. These ningens seemed to be trying to spook each other as they told the story of the half-demon, Inuyasha. How he lost his heart to a mortal priestess, how he apparently betrayed her and she shot him down before dying shortly thereafter herself.

This confused Sesshomaru. Lost his heart? His brother? Inuyasha? What did that mean? Once the children had left the young daiyoukai had dropped down from his perch, his head cocked to the side slightly regarding the sleeping half-demon. Sesshomaru placed his hand just to the side of the sacred arrow, and, while it hissed slightly, it did not burn him. But more importantly, he could still feel his sibling's heart beat.

How curious that Inuyasha had... "lost his heart" yet it still beat within the cavity of his being? Sesshomaru continued to try to make sense of it as he spent the night on a high branch, peering at the stars and also keeping watch of the immediate area, lest any other youkai wander about and think to devour his sibling.

He was unsure why he kept guard, but after a bit of thought he came to the conclusion that if the spell placed on his brother, for he was not dead, were to eventually wane and dissipate he would be able to see that fire in the hanyou's eyes, those furious quivers run throughout his body.

He would not allow anyone to take that from him. None but Inuyasha's responses mystified him. That's why he did it so often, encouraged the hanyou's wrath. It was because it gave him a feeling humans often referred to as... pleasure... to be pleased with something.

It was indeed an enjoyable feeling.

Sesshomaru's pondering that night turned into an entire moon cycle and it seemed from the various conversations he'd heard the town's people speak of that his brother would not be awakening ever, or, at least for a very long time. This news had caused a fairly violent reaction in him.

He was angry.

Anger was something he knew well. Anger and physical pain that allowed a youkai to know when they were in danger of ceasing in existence if they did not retreat and tend their wounds immediately. Anger was something he learned the day his sire-... his _father_, died and his half-brother had been born. Anger was what he felt when the supposed "family" of his father's second mate came after her and her half-blood son with weapons, intending to drive the evil out of both by spilling their blood on the clean white snow.

Anger was what he unleashed when he killed every single one of them that hunted the ningen hime and his young half-sibling. It was out of this emotion, that at the time he could not name, that he began to trail his sibling and the mother, to... protect them.

His father, before having met his death had asked him, "Do you have something to protect?"

Sesshomaru was confused by the question at the time, not knowing what it meant. And he scoffed at the strange notion of "protect," telling his father as much, for he was a child still, and children, when not understanding something, merely play it off as unneeded knowledge.

And his father had left and met his death, Sesshomaru staring at the large retreating back of his sire, which was the last time he laid eyes on him alive.

He had walked off into the snow for a while, trying to comprehend what this "protect" meant. A few minutes later he heard a furious howl. Father... Something tugged at Sesshomaru from within then at his father's dying call, and he willed his body to change into mere energy and whisk through the skies easily to the place he knew his father's body would be.

He found him under the ruble of what human's called a birthing room. A human corpse was also there, but it was not that of his father's second mate. It was a male, and it seemed they had been battling. Both had been crushed under the heat and weight of the fiery building, his father's extended wounds from his battle with a great dragon hindering him.

Sesshomaru stared at the body for a long while before it started to melt into blue fireflies and dissipate into the stars above. That's what happened with daiyoukai, those of noble, pure blood. Their bodies took care of themselves once the being inside had moved on to the afterlife. The bodies would then remove themselves from tangible existence and follow the being they had been attached to, moving to rest in the afterlife as well.

Sesshomaru watched the last bit of his father's existence reach for the stars. One last blue firefly of body took its time, hovering in the air in front of Sesshomaru's face. The small energy moved forward and brushed his face before following the others in the blanket of darkness above. The young youkai could have swore when it had touched his skin that it felt like his father embracing him in what he said humans called a "hug."

The next moment he heard yelling and the sound of swords being drawn and horses moving to the east at a fast pace.

Sesshomaru was drawn to the prospect of battle, for he felt a need to fight something, to rid himself of something that he harbored inside that was confusing him, agitating his senses and making him overwhelmed.

That was when he found the men of the castle hunting his father's human mate and her infant son whose name Sesshomaru had yet to learn.

With his demon eyes, he could see the woman running through the forest several hundreds of yards ahead, barefoot and her child whimpering at the cold that surely stung its young, newly exposed flesh.

Sesshomaru gave chase to the men that chased them. And he slaughtered them, the strange things inside of him only subsiding minimally as he looked to his side, not being able to see the woman ningen anymore but knowing she was still running through the blistery winter.

Sesshomaru had soared in the night air, searching. Moments passed and he found her heaving, leaning into a tree to shield her child from a cold wind. He stayed above in the sky, hovering above them and looking around, trying to think of what it was humans would need in such a situation. Warmth... they were easily affected by abnormal temperatures, such as cold and hot, and seemed only truly happy and at peace in the wild during spring and the endings of summer and the beginning of fall where the feel of the season was easy on their frail skin.

Sesshomaru spotted smoke trailing up into the night not a mile away, he left his guard of the ningen and the child and flew easily to the place he sought. A home, an elderly couple inhabiting the lightened hovel. Sesshomaru peered in.

The man and woman were sickly, not close to death but merely waiting for it. This hut was of more use to the two out in the forest than these two, and Sesshomaru ended the two's lives while they slept; they did not suffer or writhe in pain. He took their bodies and placed them another mile away in the opposite direction of his half-family.

Sesshomaru then turned into blue energy again and went to the human hime and her child in this form. He hovered in front of her sight, hoping she was smart for a human and would follow him. She did, stumbling albeit but made it to the hut. She knocked on it and found no answer. She let herself inside and tears fell from her eyes, landing in wet blotches on her chest. Moving to the fire light and finding furs on the side, she wrapped her child in the blankets and laid him off to the side, a safe distance away from the flames. She turned to the blue energy and smiled through her leaking eyes.

"Thank you, thank you," she said many times. She looked down at her son then, wiggling around to find a good sleeping position as he stared blearily around, a lazy smile adorning his face now that he was out of the cold. "I-" she paused before continuing. "This is Inuyasha."

The blue energy moved from the closed doorway to the child and hovered over him.

Sesshomaru looked down at the infant. _Inu... yasha_. The youkai tasted the child's name on his tongue. He was...

_Beautiful..._

A warm sensation appeared in Sesshomaru chest. And while he did not understand it, he knew it was not something that bothered him. He touched the child with his blue energy and then went back toward the door. He looked back and the woman was still crying, bowing to him. He left.

As he did, he heard the woman whisper to the night, "Thank you, my love. Thank you, thank you Inu no Taishou."

* * *

Author's Note: Aww. So at the end of this, which is the next chapter... or two, I'll put the lyrics to the song this is based off of. Hope you enjoyed!


	3. Watching Your World from Afar

_Strange & Beautiful_**  
Chapter 3: Watching Your World from Afar**

It had been three years since his brother had been released from the spell. Three years since is pack and the hanyou's had all been entangled in Naraku's insidious plot. And now merely one year since the dark hanyou's demise.

However, three years ago, Sesshomaru, upon hearing of his younger sibling's release, had immediately sought the half-demon out. Though, upon the first glimpse he caught of his brother, a moment which he would always remember for it left a strange, ugly ache in his chest, he had seen him put himself in danger for a human girl.

For some reason, it had been a disturbing sight. Inuyasha's valor and honor, while noble, were nothing without his life, and, had he been more careful and conscious of that fact, he wouldn't have put the human girl's life ahead of his own well-being.

It angered Sesshomaru. How could his brother so easily endanger himself to the point where he was so close to death? Had Inuyasha no care of self preservation? Had the half-demon not thought how troublesome it'd be for Sesshomaru, as it had been the entire time Inuyasha was under the spell, to not be able to pick and pry emotions from the hanyou's livid form? Was he so selfish?

Sesshomaru, for nearly the first time in his life, seethed as a true youkai would, for while youkai held the bare minimum to no emotional feelings, they were able to feel anger and selfishness. And at this moment, Sesshomaru was swimming in it. He would not have his sibling taken from him, and all for the sake of a frail human who did not deserve nor cherish the hanyou's many numerous reactions and emotions as he himself did.

And so Sesshomaru's plan had been devised at this time. He would take something of precious value from the hanyou, no matter what the hanyou would have to go through, and he would see those emotions play across the enchantingly angry face of his sibling. He would poke and prod and pull feelings from his brother like the woman-child could never hope to.

And he did. Every time they met since the hanyou had been released, Sesshomaru's fake interest in the Tetsusaiga triggering the hanyou's temper as had Sesshomaru himself always done. And the demon couldn't get enough of it. It was indeed a beautiful thing to see, even more so when he could appreciate it in memory time and time again.

But his fake interest in Tetsusaiga became something else over time. Instead of wanting to take something precious from his brother to merely see his emotions flare to life, the Earth Fang of their father became a way to assert his power over the half-demon, to show Inuyasha how strong Sesshomaru was, how capable he was... to prove... something... to his brother...

And then _She_ had come into his life.

The little girl called Rin; the one that was like any other human yet not. The one that enchanted him just as his sibling had done and still continued to do. However, while the girl provided him with amusement and interesting ponderings, she was not able to captivate his mind, to ensnare his attention as his brother was.

However, with Inuyasha's disdain for him now, an even more curious emotion that he had come to know when he had tricked his brother by using the un-mother, he was unable to see the emotions that interested him so as often as he wished, especially with his new pack that always seemed to ready themselves for battle when they sensed his presence. Sesshomaru had no interest in fighting the humans. Had they not been Inuyasha's pack, he would have done away with the lot due to them being unnecessary, not to mention they were quite the hindrances to his highly sought after pastime; the study of his sibling.

And maybe, perhaps, that was part of the reason he had... by definition he supposed... adopted his now human ward. Though while the girl was indeed an interesting creature that always had a cheery expression, it was his brother's fiery passion that intrigued him beyond any other human he'd ever come across, and he wasn't quite sure he was ready to let go of it now, if ever.

Each time they came upon one another, the brother's fought, both for very different reasons. Sesshomaru could not help but antagonize his sibling while Inuyasha's pride and embarrassment would get the better of his mind before he'd lash out without thought. And each time they both left without a word, neither finishing the other off as they would both promise to do, but always someone would bleed. And each time Sesshomaru had let things get out of hand and he would wound his sibling, he would feel a strange heaviness encompass his heart, a feeling that he had only felt a couple of times in his long life, a feeling humans referred to as "regret."

He regretted hurting the hanyou, both physically and emotionally, but he had no other way to express himself. He had no other way to portray that which he felt but did not understand. He wanted the hanyou, with his half-human self, to figure it out for him, to explain it to him. But most of all, he wanted Inuyasha to notice him.

He would not be ignored, not when the woman-child was around, not when the walking dead female was present and certainly not when the dark hanyou, Naraku, had lingered about.

He would absolutely **_not_** be ignored.

Inuyasha would notice him, he would acknowledge him. He would express his admittance of the demon's strength, credibility, honor... He would acknowledge the fact that every time they fought, it was not out of hate, or spite, or anger; it was that Sesshomaru had always felt a hot rush at the thought of seeing his brother's temper flare, to see his skin flush with heat that all caused a strange shiver fluttering throughout his being at the sight...

He would not be outshone by humans that often shunned his younger sibling more so than demon society.

And slowly, over time and the course of Naraku's defeat, they had stopped trying to do extensive harm to the other, their spars becoming training sessions, if only to Sesshomaru. They would talk sometimes even; and, while heated, witty words would be uttered from either party, they would usually leave the vicinity without painting either of their blood on the other's sword.

Then when Naraku was destroyed, the cursed jewel whole and wished into non-existence once more, things calmed, relationships bloomed and an understanding arose, especially when the woman-child named Kagome went back, permanently, to wherever it was she was from and wouldn't, for whatever reason, be able to return. It also aided in bonding matters when Rin had taken an interest in the boy slayer, Kohaku. By way of her affections (that were returned in kind) his ward and he would often visit the village that Inuyasha protected.

And that was when Sesshomaru struck.

He had attempted, fairly poorly at first, to instigate a new pattern to their usual barking at each other. It took a good many times but eventually it came to the point where Inuyasha and he would merely sit in silence and enjoy the beauty of nature, or dispose of unwanted demons that tried to eat a random villager for the morning meal together. Eventually it turned into the two traveling short distances with one another, merely because it was nice to have someone there if you needed to beat the hell out of something, or incite the other's emotions so they quivered with embarrassment.

However, their short trips then turned into longer travels as Inuyasha finally took an interest in his demon heritage, Sesshomaru offering to go through their family history as they roamed the Island. The youkai would point out monuments or landmarks that their family had been involved with, whether it was in destruction or building.

During their return from one such journey, Sesshomaru's thoughts had moved into the past, to the night he had heard the story of how Inuyasha had been sealed to the tree, and he couldn't help but ask - he was very curious to know-...

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said suddenly, rippling the silence with his stone-like voice as they took a rest on the outskirts of a vibrant meadow, only miles away from Inuyasha's village. The youkai was leaning against a tree under the shade as the half-demon sprawled his body a couple feet away, nesting in the plush grass.

"Hn?" the hanyou mumbled, eyes still closed as he lazed about.

"What does..." Sesshomaru began. He had always wanted to clarify this question. "What does... 'lose your heart' mean?"

"Eh?" the hanyou's eyes were now peeking open, lifting his head off the ground to look at his brother more fully. "What the hell kinda question is that?"

"A relevant one. Answer."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes before he settled back down into his hanyou-shaped meadow indention. "I guess it basically means you've... given your heart to someone."

"And what does that mean?"

Inuyasha blew out an exasperated breath. Sometimes his brother really did act like a child. But then again... such notions were completely beyond the youkai because he _was_ youkai and therefore could not feel what a human does, what he did, as a half-demon.

"Giving your heart to someone..." the hanyou repeated. "Well, I guess it means you love someone enough to devote yourself to them."

"And... love... devote... what are they?" the youkai prodded, his tone, facial expression and inquiry highly contradicting to one another. One in passing would almost think the demon was mocking the hanyou... However, Inuyasha knew Sesshomaru was genuinely interested in his answer, which was probably the sole reason he continued attempting to explain something that... really had never been in his grasp of knowledge.

"Devotion... It's when you're loyal to someone. Like how you're loyal to father's memory, how you're loyal to your human girl and watch out for her, and protect father's legacy by... smiting any and all who say something bad about the old guy," Inuyasha snorted.

Sesshomaru's brow quirked, his listening attentive. "Devotion is... protecting then?" the youkai tried.

"Hmm, yeah, sorta. Devotion is unconditional caring, meaning no matter what that person does, what they say, how they act... you'll still be there to see them when it's all over and done with. And love... love is... a lot harder to explain."

"You had... lost your heart... to those mortal priestesses. Do you not remember what love is if you gave your heart to them?"

"I-... that's..." the hanyou was stuck. While he had given his heart to both of them, they had both had to leave him since either had belonged in different worlds than the one he did. Inuyasha sighed forlornly, staring up at the sky, an absent look falling over his features at the thought of the past.

"Inuyasha?" the demon verbally poked for his sibling's attention; he wanted to know the answers.

"Yeah, fine, fine. Love... in very simple terms, is when you think about a person a lot, and you like spending time with them. Love is... complicated, sometimes frustrating, but it's always there even if you fight and yell and cry... if it's the real thing. Love is just... difficult. Sometimes your love isn't enough. But usually when that happens that means neither you, nor the one you love, are willing to meet half-way... and if you can't do that, you probably don't really love each other."

"And... you felt these things... toward your human women?"

"I... yeah."

"Did you come to an impasse? Where you would not meet half-way, as you say? Is that why they left? Why you no longer follow them?"

Inuyasha was silent for a long moment. "It doesn't matter. Kikyou's gone and Kagome's... Kagome's gone, too; back to where they both need to be." The hanyou got up and brushed off stray bits of grass. He began to walk toward the northern part of his village.

"Did I offend you?" Sesshomaru said in an even tone, his voice carried on the wind to Inuyasha's twitching, white ears.

Inuyasha paused briefly without turning around. "No, I just..." he looked up at the sun in the mid-morning sky. "I just wanna be alone right now." And with that he continued walking in the direction of the Bone Eaters Well.

Sesshomaru watched even after he disappeared from human sight, and continued to stare even when he could no longer see the red-clad hanyou with his demon eyes as well.

* * *

Sesshomaru had found the half-demon a few hours later standing in front of the Bone Eaters Well, merely looking at it. When Inuyasha finally fell out of his stupor and realized his sibling was behind him he merely shrugged and moved toward the village.

It wasn't until a week later when he prompted the conversation to begin once more.

They had just set up camp for the evening as they traveled north, Inuyasha's human night this eve and the hanyou wanting to rest in his human form and not wanting to run into roaming demons looking for a midnight snack. As Inuyasha built up a fire for his frail skin to warm up to, Sesshomaru jumped at the opportunity given to him by his sibling's silence.

"Inuyasha?"

The hanyou sighed. "Yeah?"

Sesshomaru tasted his words in his mind before speaking. "When you lose your heart... does it hurt?"

The half-demon looked at his sibling rather oddly. What was up with all these questions again? He threw a stray twig into the fire in front of them before answering.

"It can, yeah."

"Under what circumstances?"

Inuyasha thought about that for a moment. "Well, if you love someone and they don't return your love, it hurts. Or if you love them and they... leave you, or pass on, it hurts also."

"What does it feel like?"

"What does what feel like?"

"To lose your heart."

"What the hell is up with all these questions again?" the hanyou exasperated. Sesshomaru stared. And would continue to stare until he got his answer. Inuyasha gave in at the thought of having a staring contest with the statue-like demon all night. Because he knew Sesshomaru would, and he also knew his sibling would win. "Ugh, fine. I guess... when you fall in love-"

"Fall? How can you _fall_ in love?"

"Will you keep your trap shut so I can finish!" Inuyasha barked. Sesshomaru stared. "First- Falling in love is an expression. It means that you acknowledge and realize that you love someone. Second-... It feels... great. To fall in love. Especially when you realize you have. Sometimes the most obvious signs can be the hardest to see."

"How can something that is obvious be hard to see?" Sesshomaru squinted at that notion. That was not plausible. Surely if something were apparent one could see it.

"Uhh, well..." Inuyasha pondered on that momentarily. "I guess, think of it like this... your heart, or your love for someone... well, it's like your eyes. At first, you don't know the color of them, but you know you have them..." Inuyasha's brow creased at that... it didn't make sense really, yet did oddly enough. At least to him.

"My heart... is what I see, yet cannot?"

"Err, no... well, yeah but... Ugh, what was the expression Kagome used from her odd scrolls..." Inuyasha said to himself before remembering. "Oh! Okay, this might make more sense... Love is like the wind. You can't always see it but you can feel it."*

Sesshomaru stared. But this stare was one of thoughtful expression and not the kind that said the hanyou hadn't answered his question in its entirety.

"Do ya get it now?"

"Hai."

Inuyasha relaxed as he felt the warmth of the fire encompass him, is eyes heavy and comfy enough to fall aslee-

"What does love feel like?"

Inuyasha nearly choked on his tongue. The questions would never end, would they? Had he known his brother was this talkative and inquisitive he probably would have continued fighting the bastard instead of taking the time to bond with him.

"That's too hard to answer..." the hanyou finally said.

"Do you not know what it feels like?"

"I've been in love before!" Inuyasha snapped. "It's just... hard to explain. And I kinda did already." Sesshomaru gave Inuyasha "the look" and the half-demon sighed in defeat, lying back on the ground and staring at the stars above. "It's different for everyone I think, but the main points to it are basically that you want to spend your time with them, as much as you can. You want to protect them, talk to them, listen to them. You want them to tell you how they feel, to show sides of them that others don't get to see. To share special moments with... Love is... when you care about someone more than yourself, someone that you care about unconditionally. You take the good and the bad, all of it, no matter what. You like them for them, flaws and all."

Inuyasha seemed entranced with the night sky as Sesshomaru pondered his words for a long while. Just as the half-demon was about to fall unconscious again the youkai's voice stole him from sleep's grasp.

"Inuyasha?"

"Hnnn?" the hanyou mumbled, still only half-awake.

"I think... I may have lost my heart."

Golden eyes shot open as a body snapped up right. "Nani!"

Sesshomaru merely peered at the moonless sky.

"Well? To- to who?" the hanyou continued to sputter. The thought was ludicrous, totally insane...

Silence ensued for many moments, and Inuyasha almost gave up until Sesshomaru turned his piercing eyes and unwavering attention toward him.

"Well?" the half-demon pressed brown arched

"I believe, from what you have described..." Sesshomaru began, chewing his thoughts mentally, before letting the bomb fall, "I believe that you have possession of it."

* * *

Author's Note: OH MAI GARR! O_O Wow, I just totally awww'd at that XD


	4. Trying to Be Where You Are

_Strange & Beautiful_**  
Chapter 4: Trying to Be Where You Are**

The youkai spent most of the next week by himself, his brother opting to spend some time in the village. Alone. Sesshomaru had a suspicion that his sibling was... how had the half-demon once said it... "figuratively running away"; for whatever reason, Inuyasha hadn't seemed to take well to the demon's confession of losing his heart to the other.

And when he had grown inpatient waiting for his sibling to emerge from the human village, he had decided to retrieve the hanyou himself. Upon sight of his arrival, the half-ningen had been red faced and sputtering obscenities that Sesshomaru wasn't even sure as to their meaning, never mind if they even made sense. However, regardless of the angry words the embarrassed hanyou had used, Inuyasha had eventually relented to hold council with the youkai.

After having dejectedly followed the demon lord into the woods for a while they finally settled in a small clearing, Sesshomaru waiting for some kind of answer or response from the younger inu who merely stared at the ground angrily, flushed red. It was a long while before the hanyou started mumbling, then grumbling and then ranting before he eventually huffed angrily and tried explaining his earlier nonsensical words.

He explained that there were "different kinds of love", such as the love of a lover where intimate physical relations were involved, the love of a companion where you're protective of as well as enjoy spending time with that friend, the love of a child for their parents, the love of sibling for their siblings, and so on. Inuyasha went on to say that Sesshomaru probably meant that he loved Inuyasha in the brotherly sense.

The youkai had blinked, finding his sibling's explanation fairly satisfactory... until his brain touched on something that his brother had hurriedly said.

"What is this 'love' in regards to the 'physical aspect' you spoke of?"

Inuyasha bloomed a blushing pink, the conversation on love from a week ago having already past his point of no return, so he gave in to responding instead of fighting it. "The... physical aspect of love, at least with a lover,... well, that means you're attracted to them physically... and you have... special physical relations with them... to show that..."

Sesshomaru stared. His brother really did lack in this area. Especially when he thought the youkai would give up with an incompetent answer like that.

"Attracted to someone, physically. So to be attracted to someone physically, you must find something about them that is physically... pleasing... to you?" the demon tried.

"Uh, yeah."

"And what is this 'special physical relationship' that one would share with another? Is love involved in this?"

Silence.

"Inuyasha?"

"...yeah?"

"In the physical relations you speak of between another person and oneself... is love involved?"

"Uhm... sometimes."

"Sometimes? Why engage in a physical relationship if you do not love the person?"

"Well, why did dad go for your mom?" Inuyasha says flustered

"He wished to rut her and create me."

_You conceited, practical bastard_, Inuyasha cursed the older inu.

"To make kids, yeah, that's why people have sex-"

"Sex?"

"It's the same thing as 'physical relations', okay! Just another word for rut, too.

"And people have other reasons aside from procreating to have... sex?"

"... among other... reasons..."

"Such as?"

Inuyasha groaned. "Can't you talk to someone else about this stuff, it's weird!"

Sesshomaru stared.

"Fine. But no more questions after this. Sex is to make babies, show your love physically for your... partner, the one you wanna spend eternity with, and sometimes just to satisfy your lust."

"Lust?"

"ARGH!" Inuyasha yelled out. "You cannot be SERIOUS!"

Sesshomaru blinked.

"I can't even begin to explain that to you. You either know it or you don't, demon or not."

Sesshomaru tried a different tactic, one which, while obvious to him, would more than likely fly over the hanyou's simple mind and get him the answers in which he sought.

"Have you ever felt lust, Inuyasha?"

"I- well, yeah, 'course I have!" the half-demon blushed a horribly adorable color.

"What did it feel like?" Sesshomaru's head tilted ever so slightly to the side, eyes lit with curiosity as they so often were.

"Uh, well... a hot feeling kinda started at the pit of my stomach... it tingled and I felt hot like I'd been through a long battle. I... this is so embarrassing but what more could you possibly humiliate me with?" Inuyasha gave up to his ever clueless sibling, not realizing where his words would lead both of them to. "When I felt lust, I wanted to... touch the other person, with my hands and my body and mouth... and other... various parts... it's just instinct... a primal one... Everybody has it. Everyone feels it. Probably even you, too."

Sesshomaru looked up at the sky, contemplating as Inuyasha yawned, falling into a light doze. _Hmm, there was possibility that even he could feel it?_

As he watched his slumbering sibling, Sesshomaru decided to contemplate before inquiring further on the present topic.

* * *

"Inuyasha?"

"Mm?" the hanyou yawned himself awake an hour later, squinting at the angle the sun was now at.

"When you feel lust, what happens? You say that you share your body, physically, with another. Concluding thus, I assume that your body reacts to them?"

"Uhh, what?"

Sesshomaru stared hard at the ground, picking out his words carefully, ones that would hopefully convey that which made sense in his head to his loopy sibling. "Are there... affects- physically- that tell that one is lusting?"

Inuyasha bloomed and burst cherry blossoms. How did this conversation turn so... so perverted!

"I- I- I-!" was all the half-demon could say coherently. Shaking his head of all the ridiculous questions, he blurted out, "Why don't you just go spy on people in the village and get your answers that way!" before he jumped up and ran off to go kill something and pretend it was his brother.

Sesshomaru stared after his sibling, thinking.

He would admit, it was a rather helpful suggestion, especially if he wished to see how things worked rather than have them verbally confirmed to him, in a very fumbling fashion.

The youkai nodded to himself and stood. He would observe those in the immediate area and obtain his answers before taking them back to his sibling for clarification.

And with that in mind, Sesshomaru made his way toward the human village beyond the river.

* * *

Author's Note: Uh oh. Sesshou... the voyeur. Now look what you've done, Inuyasha!


	5. You Turn Every Head

_Strange & Beautiful_**  
Chapter 5: You Turn Every Head**

He had not thought much of the couple as he passed the meadow they inhabited until he caught the scent of the male. His scent was that of interest in the female, a deep, musky, excited smell, something similar to that of pasteurized ginger perhaps. These, Sesshomaru had decided then, were the ningens he would observe as he took temporary residence in a high tree that overlooked the small field, dense with its tall grass.

He had been watching them since the late afternoon and nothing had come of their strange, dancing courtship. They seemed to take great joy in kicking a ball around for hours on end, merely talking about unimportant things as far as a youkai was concerned, before they finally settled down in front of, he supposed what was, their hut to indulge in the evening meal.

Throughout the time he'd began watching them, Sesshomaru noted, the humans smiled and laughed quite often with one another; they seemed to enjoy the other's company immensely. He turned to face in the direction of the west, where the sun dipped into the earth, watching it set as the ningens themselves did, hands clasped together but no other part of their bodies touching.

Several minutes passed before a feminine gasp from behind him in the meadow caught the demon's attention, enticing his body to turn and investigate. When he did he found the male was pressing his mouth to the female's, his hands wandering about her kimono, her surprised intake of breath repeating every so often as his fingers ran over areas Sesshomaru supposed had never been touched before by another's hands, least of all by a male that she took such interest in.

Only a few moments passed before clothes began to rustle and more primal sounds emitted from the two. Once the female had been divested, the man began removing his own ensemble in a hurried frenzy. Upon the human's completion of taking off the apparently hindering cloth, Sesshomaru's eyes widened at what he saw.

The man's... pensu had engorged, standing fairly erect.

Sesshomaru frowned, finding this reaction curious. Surely, as a human, the man's pensu would hurt to be strained as such? Especially since ningens did not possess the durability, strength and stamina a youkai did, never mind if one was a pureblood such as himself.

The man groaned then as the soft material of his kimono brushed over his pensu as he threw it to the side with finality. He groaned, yet... it was not a sound made out of agony... one more of... anticipation, a long idea which confused the spying daiyoukai once more.

Sesshomaru wondered as he continued watching what the ningens probably hoped was a private act. Hmm. Quite possibly... and in this one area alone, youkai and human were not so different; both were able to wonder and immerse in the satisfying feeling the engorging of the pensu gave them, the anticipation there was to sheath oneself in something warm and secure in its welcoming embrace. Quite similar it would seem... But obviously only in this one area.

The woman fell onto her back, hips lifting as the man moved forward and began to press himself in, both panting in reply to the beginning of their rut. As she wrapped her legs around him, she clawed at him furiously, urging him forward, closer, if possible, to her. Movement, frantic and paced, commenced in what Sesshomaru knew as a rut, or what Inuyasha had referred to in the human tongue as sex.

Yes, he knew this. This was what was called a rut, something youkai often engaged in during their female's seasons. So rutting and sex were the same then? The smell certainly was to be certain, whether it was ningen, youkai or half. Yes, this was familiar. This was something he had experienced many times himself, and now he was able to identify it with the words his brother knew them by.

The human rut, though interesting, was nothing noteworthy, and he grew bored quickly before jumping to the ground and walking in the direction he'd originally come from, the direction which he hoped his brother was still in for he wanted to discuss his findings and the extents of his newfound knowledge.

So deep in contemplation was he that Sesshomaru failed to notice he was being followed. It was not until a light tap of feet against the earth and a, "Yo," was heard from in front of him that his attention drew itself back to the present.

His concentration buzzed and he honed in on the disturbance in his walk as he came to a standstill, merely blinking, physically expressing how unaffected he was by her sudden appearance.

"Sight seeing?" the woman smirked.

"Kagura," the youkai acknowledged before his eyebrows furrowed with a sudden thought. Perhaps... perhaps he could accomplish the engorged strain that ningen male had achieved if he went through the motions the human couple had, of what he assumed was that of a human courtship. Surely it wouldn't need to be "the season" for him to accomplish this?

How to go about it... a human courtship where only youkai were involved... What was it that Inuyasha had said once about the... "steps" to finding out if someone "liked" you? Sesshomaru nodded slightly to himself when he remembered the hanyou's words, though most of those steps highly edited in his own mind, if not completely bypassed, before he said, "Do you find me attractive?"

At the abrupt question Kagura's cheeks bloomed. But for some reason, in the back of Sesshomaru's mind, he didn't think it was as full or as curious to see as was his brother's.

Immediately he was able to scent the spike of, what he assumed was, arousal (even if he wasn't used to smelling it 'out of season' like this it truly smelt similar to the human females back in the meadow...). The scent, while different from others he'd smelt and yet not being the first time he had actually identified arousal (he usually only paid attention to that of an inu female's), was rather... refreshing, possibly even pleasing. Regardless that Kagura was not the same race as he, the scent she presented him with enticed something inside of him, something that made him feel...

"Lust..." Sesshomaru murmured, not realizing he had moved directly in front of the female demon who was only able to stare up at him wide-eyed and blushing. Sesshomaru returned her gaze, head inclined, wanting to explore more of this feeling her scent evoked.

The wind picked up the next moment and the scent brought to his sensitive nose was like that of any male he'd ever come across when "excited", when their pensu was engorged and they wanted to rut, yet it was mixed with something else... something far sweeter than any he remembered. A sweetness that none he'd ever come across had possessed...

Save for one.

A moment of analyzing was all it took before Sesshomaru realized he was walking away from Kagura and toward the fascinating smell coming from the south. Inhaling again, the youkai deduced that the scent of Kagura's arousal was a faint comparison to what this new smell elicited from his core, and without a word or response to the female's indigent squawk of question, he walked off...

...completely intent on following and pinpointing the scent of his little brother's arousal.

* * *

Author's Note: Dun,dunduunn.


	6. Secretly Falling Apart

_Chapter 5 Recap:_

The wind picked up the next moment and the scent brought to his sensitive nose was like that of any male he'd ever come across when "excited", when their penisu was engorged and they wanted to rut, yet it was mixed with something else... something far sweeter than any he remembered. A sweetness that none he'd ever come across had possessed...

Save for one.

A moment of analyzing was all it took before Sesshomaru realized he was walking away from Kagura and toward the fascinating smell coming from the south. Inhaling again, the youkai deduced that the scent of Kagura's arousal was a faint comparison to what this new smell elicited from his core, and without a word or response to the female's indigent squawk of question, he walked off...

...completely intent on following and pinpointing the scent of his little brother's arousal.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Secretly Falling Apart**

He had followed his nose, and the sight it brought him was... beguiling, to say the least.

Sesshomaru had paused where he was, hidden in the dense brush that surrounded the small area of hot spring which was branched off from a larger lake. He felt nothing short of a "peeping Tom" as his sibling had once referred to him as (apparently he heard his miko say it a few times before 'sitting' him) when a similar such occurrence had transpired a few years previous between the two brothers. Yet even with the memory of his brother shouting at him red faced, and the punishment that the demon received back then, Sesshomaru still did not feel entirely inclined to end said peeping so soon. And so he kept his presence unknown to the otherwise unaware hanyou, maintaining a steady gaze on the naked figure sprawled in the steamy, inviting water.

As his golden eyes traveled up the body of his sibling, from toe to hips, and hips to sternum, a narrowed, calculating gaze soon turned into confusion and widened as an old knowledge dawned within his mind as he reached the tips of his brother's tresses.

It seemed that... he had forgotten.

So used to many a day and night seeing his little brother as often as he did, his smudged, angry face and fiery golden eyes, he had completely elapsed the beckoning of the New Moon. Looking to the sky he perceived that indeed his eyes did not betray him, that this eve was undeniably the night of the New Moon.

And his brother was indeed human.

It would seem, he noted now, that since the time they had begun traveling together, his little brother had grown accustomed to the protection his older sibling would provide on such a night, no matter where the elder had gone earlier in the day; distance did not matter, nor did the importance of whatever it was he had gone to do. Sesshomaru would be there to protect him.

Sesshomaru briefly chastised himself for being so immersed with wanting to find out what it was that humans, hanyou's, or any being in possession of emotion, felt when in passion, when in lust... that he had nearly missed the beginning of the night when his brother would need him most.

A strange ache that only ever came to him when he forgot something important enveloped his chest, trying to do the same to his tongue. Sesshomaru did not like this feeling, this feeling that made him believe he was about to choke on his own throat as it swelled.

Sesshomaru, while only having gotten to know his brother more thoroughly in the last decade or so, knew that _had _he forgotten tonight, _had_ something happened where the hanyou would find himself in danger and his sibling no where to be seen, Inuyasha would... he would not be the same afterwards.

Had the youkai come to find his brother injured and victorious, or worse... there would be no amount of times fathomable where the youkai would be able to save him from then on to give his sibling this level of content during these nights... Inuyasha would never trust his sibling to be there for him again. Of this, Sesshomaru had no doubt.

The youkai nearly whimpered as the ache intensified.

His silent punishment of himself was short-lived, however, as a splash of movement sounded from the hot spring, and Sesshomaru's face lost the harsh concentration he'd earlier stretched across it, a humbling, lighter expression taking its place as he gazed upon Inuyasha's form from the shadows of the forest once again.

The hanyou's cheeks were flushed a soft, heated red, eyelids closed in content, head reclined on the rock behind. Truly, a marvelous, rare sight one should encounter in these times of human warfare. A gust of wind blew and the earlier scent he'd smelt came to his nose, enchanting his eyes to close, his mind to falter.

_Inuyasha_... Sesshomaru's mind sighed. What would his brother's skin feel like were he to go to him now and touch his cheek? Would it be warm? Slick? Would the hanyou blush? Would his eyes close and his breath hitch? Would he sigh out his older sibling's name...?

A twig snapping from somewhere in the fog of his fantasizing brought the youkai to alert, ears perking, eyes snapping open, head moving in the direction of the sound before he himself realized where it was coming from.

There, on the other side of the hot spring, hidden themselves within the forest's lingering shadows, was a small group of humans stumbling this way and that, laughing.

Sesshomaru looked over to his sibling, who was still content to be where he was, oblivious to the human males walking towards the hot spring he occupied.

"-should be a spring around here s'mewhere..."

"-gonna get lost and my wife's gonna kill me if I don't show up by the time the sun comes up-"

"-shuddup, it's here s'mewhere, behind some brush-"

"Oh! Here it is!" one of the males declared victoriously, drunken shouts of admiration spewing from the others.

"Who the hell are you?" came a sudden voice, startling the human males. Sesshomaru gazed on from his position, wondering what his sibling would do now that his bath was ruined and his body had taken up a defensive position.

"Oy, I think it's occupied-" one of the men began.

"Ya think?" another said sarcastically, removing his top. "Oy, boy, either make some room for us to share or get movin' on your way."

"What?" the hanyou sounded startled. "I was here first!" he continued angrily.

The men were finishing up with disrobing, one stepping into the hot spring, and effectively into Inuyasha's "personal bubble" (at least Sesshomaru estimated they had; his sibling had once told him to get out of his 'personal space' when the youkai had been twenty feet away...).

"HEY! Whaddya think you're-!"

"Look kid, move over and shut yer yap or jest leave... or we'll... play with ya if that's what yer stickin' around fer... maybe we'll jest take our pleasure with yer body?"

"WHAT!"

The older human made his way into the spring, wading toward Inuyasha who didn't seem like he was going to back away, a strange light entering the man's eyes... a light which Sesshomaru did not like.

The youkai absently stepped out of his hiding place in the foliage behind his brother, several feet still between him and the spring full of humans. He merely stared at the scene before him, evaluating every single detail he could before the incessant noise began-

"_AHH!_ W-who the hell are yeh!" one man yelled out, the other three too cowardly to even scream. Inuyasha turned around to take in what the others were scrambling away from.

"You seek to find your body's pleasure in this human?" Sesshomaru spoke before anyone else could. The men abruptly shut up at the youkai's deep voice, trying to assess the question, and the intent.

Moments passed. "I will not repeat myself, humans."

"No!" one shouted out.

"We ain't got no interest in this kid's body!" said another.

That was peculiar. Sesshomaru had surely heard right. His ears had never failed him before. "Then you did not express to him that you would take pleasure in his body were he not to leave the area?"

"Yes! I mean, no! I mean-"

Sesshomaru stared.

"We said that-"

"But we just meant it to scare the boy off! We didn't think he'd stay and let us!"

"HEY!" Inuyasha cut in, yelling at the men. "I wasn't gonna stay and let you have... Damnit!"

The demon turned his attention to his sibling as the hanyou made to get up and exit the spring. Sesshomaru blocked his way out, however, not finished with his questions, and therefore not ready to leave as his brother seemed intent on doing.

"Hey, what are you-?" the half-human began. Sesshomaru ignored him, directing his inquiries to the men still huddling together in the spring opposite them.

"You wish not to take pleasure in his body?"

"WHAT THE HELL-!" Inuyasha boomed, though needlessly as Sesshomaru went on ignoring his wails and demands.

"Uh..." the man in the front began, looking nervously this way and that.

Among the other three men behind their leader were whispers of, "Is this guy crazy?", "Who is he?", "-with the other?"

"Well?" Sesshomaru pressed. He wanted this answer for some reason.

"I- uh, I mean, not that the kid isn't... good-lucking, he... I mean, I'd be more than... h-happy to? B-but-..."

Sesshomaru continued to look at the men, his inner thoughts never once betraying him to outsiders.

_But?_ The demon frowned. "Is there a problem with his body?" Sesshomaru stated, wondering. He pulled his brother out of the spring by the scruff of his neck, examining him up and down and from side to side as he turned him this way and that.

"_LET ME GO-!_" Inuyasha snapped, holding on to Sesshomaru's arm and trying to pull himself up and away. Sesshomaru dropped his sibling to the ground, the hanyou landing on his butt, spread eagle, gaze still examining.

"Yes,... I mean, no! There ain't no problem with him, he's beautiful! It's just uh... well..."

Sesshomaru blinked.

"He's just a kid..." the man finally said.

A delicate brow raised at that.

In physical form according to ningen, the demon supposed, Inuyasha did indeed look like a human adolescent of sixteen years old regardless that he was truly 160 years of age. However, to a demon Inuyasha was fully mature, yet still young to their kind, so Sesshomaru could see and effectively use the word "child" in reference to his sibling, he theorized.

"Because he is a child, you will not..." the demon tasted the denial of the men regarding his sibling's body.

"Yeah, it's... not right. I mean, I got a kid his age... Wouldn't touch a kid like that! You'd have to be sick! Crazy!" the leader said, the other three nodding and grunting in agreement. "'sides, I got myself a woman, one who's all kinds of fun." All the men nodded and laughed.

"I see." He would have to ponder this some more, but for now...

Sesshomaru looked down. His sibling, and the fire rat robes he was famous for, as well as the Tetsusaiga, were gone. The temporary human's scent led to the east, and without a second or bidding glance back, the youkai followed his brother.

* * *

It was only a few minutes later when he found his sibling, back in the camp they'd made earlier, a healthy fire blazing in the night.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"

Sesshomaru winced at the question-demand he'd expected the moment he walked into camp. He sat down against a tree as he allowed his sibling to vent his anger and embarrassment, an action he monitored that most, if not all, humans needed to do before they were able to converse somewhat coherently (though not nearly enough of them partook in this particular course).

Inuyasha slumped into a sitting position across from his sibling, staring at the fire angrily. "What the hell was that back there?"

"I was merely curious why they-"

"Why didn't you jump in and get all guard doggy on them? I'm human, you fucktwit!"

"Obviously." Sesshomaru blinked. "As were they. They posed no immediate threat, and so I did not feel any need to attack them."

Inuyasha was at a loss for words, mouth flapping open and shut.

"As for my questions-" the demon started.

"Yeah, what was that about? Did you wanna sell me to them or something? _'Is something wrong with him?'_" Inuyasha mocked, blushing angrily.

"I simply wondered why they had said one thing, acted another and then told me something else."

It was Inuyasha's turn to stare. "Gods, you're exhausting..." Inuyasha groaned, falling backwards and throwing his arm over his eyes. "Why the hell would it matter what they thought of me anyway?"

"I simply wondered why, that if they had no intention of acting on their empty threat of finding pleasure with your body... why they would say it. Was there something wrong with you? Something they found so distasteful with your body that they wouldn't be interested enough to entertain such thoughts?"

"Tch, that's easy. I'm a hanyou. Ugly, abomination to both sides of my blood."

"Not tonight."

Inuyasha sat up, eyes narrowing at his sibling angrily, ready to retort.

Sesshomaru knew that look. He'd said something wrong.

"What I mean to say is that tonight you are not a hanyou, you do not have both bloodlines running through your veins. You are simply ningen tonight. Thus your theory is flawed."

"Keh. I'm still a hanyou in the end; dirty blood that's neither human nor demon fully. My body's probably the same; regardless of form it's still not something anyone would take an interest in. Or would wanna touch, or... _Argh!_ This is stupid. I don't wanna talk about this any-" the hanyou started trailing off angrily.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru said, calling for his attention from across the campfire. The youkai watched as the half-demon stubbornly turned around to face the forest, crossing his arms and slipping his hands into his sleeves.

"Inuyasha," the demon said once more, though this time, from right behind his brother.

Inuyasha gasped, jumping a little before turning around to face the sound and give it a good scolding or two-...

And the brothers came face to face. Sesshomaru bent his neck a bit so that he looked more evenly at his sibling. He had never been so close to Inuyasha like this... it was... somehow more... _something_...

He could not find the word for it.

"S-Sessho-...maru... what?" Inuyasha stuttered, eyes trained on Sesshomaru's, almost entranced it seemed. The youkai briefly wondered if he had the power to hypnotize others, but banished the thought the next moment.

The demon did what he had thought of doing earlier. He brought his hand up to his younger brother's cheek and caressed it slightly. It was warm, and it continued to heat under his palm just as the blush on the half-demon's face bloomed. Sesshomaru could hear Inuyasha's heartbeat pick up quickly, breath hot against the demon's own face.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru began again. "I do not find your body, regardless of the form you are in, having any flaws."

Inuyasha's eyes became impossibly huge, breath quickening. Yet he did not move away from either Sesshomaru's presence or the touch that was held against his skin.

Likewise, Sesshomaru's eyes darted all over the other's face, taking in every inch of skin, his gaze coming to rest on one particular part of his brother... that he had always wondered over...

And then, out of nowhere...

"Inuyasha," the demon called once more. The hanyou blinked looking at Sesshomaru after a few more moments of silence. "Little brother, may I kiss you?"

* * *

**Chapter end.**

Author's Note: I'm... SO evil. Hehe. Please let me know what you think!


End file.
